William Shatner to star in Twitter-inspired TV show

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CBS will air a sitcom in which William Shatner plays a cranky old fogie whose rants are captured by a Twitter-obsessed son with a million followers. No, we're not kidding.

The program is based on the real-life Twitter feed shitmydadsays, which claims more than 1.3 million followers. It was started last August by Justin Helpern shortly after he went to live with his father, who it would seem rarely misses a chance to volunteer patronizing one-liners in doses small enough to fit Twitter's 140-word limit.

Shatner reportedly will play the father in a series tentatively titled Bleep My Dad Says. He announced the news on his own Twitter account.

"I pushed for Mr. Shatner," Helpern toldThe Chicago Sun-Times. "He's been fantastic. He's like my dad in that he says what he wants to say when he wants to say it."

Shitmydadsays has already interjected itself into popular culture with a book that's now No. 8 on The New York Times nonfiction best-seller list. It's based on the younger Helpern's relationship with Sam Helpern, a retired doctor of nuclear medicine. ®